Gates cautious on lifting ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pushing a cautious approach toward changing the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy on gays.
   
Gates says he isn’t taking a position on whether the policy should be changed. But after indicating to a crowd in Pennsylvania that implementing a change could take years, he told reporters traveling with him to Rhode Island that overturning it would be very difficult.
   
Gates says he’s been talking about a change with President Barack Obama, who pledged during the campaign that he would seek to end the Clinton administration-era policy.